Wizards of Waverly Place: Ghosts
by Thor2000
Summary: Alex, Justin and Max become friends with a ghost they move into the sub shop, and he figures out how to become a member of the family.
1. Chapter 1

Waverly Pace was north of Greenwich Village and just off the business district of the metropolis that was New York City. A small slice of the people who called the island of Manhattan home, the neighborhood of shops and restaurants included many who had emigrated from their native countries looking for a home and even those who had arrived searching for success. The coffee shop was frequented by the myriad type of career types on their way to their work-obsessed lives while the nearby dress shop found itself the hangout for several young girls. The pet store fascinated many of the pre-teen crowd with its snakes and exotic creatures for sale. Down and around the corner, the Waverly Station Sandwich Shop was the closest place for quick lunches outside the Jewish delicatessen and the Italian restaurant in the former location of the Chinese eatery. There was a bit of a secret inside the innocuous retro sandwich shop of which the general public was unaware. It was no secret that the oldest son of the owners, Justin Russo, was an up-standing and moral character of some intelligence, often tempered by the impatience and indolent behavior of his younger sister, Alex. Their younger brother, Max, was quite nearly the quintessential pre-teen boy from any family, a bit active, a bit sarcastic and even a side of grating annoyance, but what the three Russo youths learned from their father outside their regular schooling was not exactly public knowledge.

"I don't know why I had to be punished…." Justin stood outside the sandwich shop with his sister dispensing sandwich shop coupons to passing pedestrians and tourists. "I had nothing to do with the volcano in the kitchen."

"Neither did I…." Alex rolled her eyes as she passed out flyers. "It was just a coincidence that I happened to be reading about volcanoes for school."

"You were supposed to build a volcano for school!" Justin snapped at her. "Not conjure one!"

"Build… conjure…." Alex wavered and meandered in the gray area between right and wrong. "I don't see the difference." She passed a flyer to a mom with two girls. Justin glared at her and ground his teeth together. He was so tired of giving her chances. Her attitude toward him was beyond lousy; it bordered on self-respect.

"Well, here's a difference for you…" Justin passed out his last flyer. "I'm done. I passed out my last flyer."

"How'd you do that?"

"I passed them out two at a time." He mugged cockily toward her. "Who's the smart one?"

A crowd of younger boys on skateboards sailed past them and tossed at them paper airplanes created out of dispensed fliers. Alex reacted complacent to the flurry of colored flyers and coupons whirling and flying around her as a flock of birds. Justin took it a bit more personally and closed his eyes in humiliating embarrassment. One flyer had lodged in his collar in it's descent as the young hooligans dashed around the corner. He looked back at them irked at their disrespect and looked at the colorful cacophony of folded debris at his feet.

"It looks like they are." Alex enjoyed her brother's dismay and soul-crushing experience. She grinned and started passing out the flyers two at a time to passing people. Justin meanwhile remained bound by his character and personal self-respect and started collecting the paper airplanes to unfold them. His father would have him redistribute them, and that was what he was going to do. Flattening them again against the front of his sweater, he sighed, glanced to his sister greeting and charming guys passing by her and tried meeting new pedestrians before Alex could get a flyer into their hands. It was turning into a competition tempered by sibling rivalry. Brother and sister locked competing eyes again as one lady bolted across the road to avoid the two Russo kids. Coming down toward Justin was a man slowly wandering down the street. He wasn't even looking up. He was clad in brown khakis and a white dress shirt with his black no-lace sneakers scuffing across the concrete toward them. Alex looked at Justin, and Justin tried to block her to finish first again. Alex made a face of determination and circled round her brother pushing out two colored fliers.

"Here you go sir!"

"I saw him first!"

"No, you didn't, I did!"

"Wait…" The depressed figure looked up from his malaise. "You two can see me?"

"Well, yeah…" Alex turned forward an attitude. "In fact, I saw you first!"

"No, I did!" Justin handed forward a flier, but his hand went straight through the chest of the forlorn figure before them. Alex stepped back in shock. Justin waved his hand through the man's body. It was as if he wasn't there. His hand was a bit chilled to the touch, but he didn't feel anything as his hand passed through the stranger's body.

"Justin, what did you do?" Alex's voice whispered as she clung a bit scared by her brother.

"I don't know!" He whispered back to her afraid of what he had done. "Dad!!" The two of them threw up their fliers in unison and stormed the dining area of their family sandwich shop. What did they do? How much trouble were they in this time? Their mother stepped out of their way from helping a customer and their brother Max looked up from his schoolwork at a booth under the windows. Jerry Russo accidentally squirted ketchup into his face upon being surprised at their onslaught. Justin and Alex started crowding each other and talking over the other trying to avoid the blame of having harmed a complete stranger. Theresa Russo looked with confused distress at her panicked kids and wondered what had affected them to get them to react like this.

"Hold it!" Jerry Russo waved his hands trying to make sense of his two kids rambling conversations toward him over each other. "I heard the words: chest, wave and nothing… What's going on again?"

"Dad…" Justin spoke ahead of Alex. "There's a guy out there. My hand went through him!" Justin lowered his voice that a dining patron sitting at the counter would not hear him.

"It's true…" Alex whispered as well. "No hole, nothing… it's as if he wasn't there." She explained while overly waving her arms for effect. Her mother and Max slipped into the private family conversation to learn what was happening.

"What did this guy look like?" Theresa asked.

"He was dressed in a white shirt, brown pants and black shoes." Justin described the guy.

"You mean that guy over there?" Max looked up and pointed him out to his father. Their heads turned toward the wandering pedestrian entering the sandwich shop. He forced an honest grin and waved his hand trying to be noticed then looked down over the dining sandwich shop patron near him. The customer didn't see him hovering in his presence either.

"Where is he?" Theresa looked around the room. "I don't see him."

"He's standing in the middle of the room, mom." Alex tried to be kind and waved back to their guest but she was worried her wizard status was busted before it began.

"Honey," Theresa looked to her daughter. "There is no one standing n the middle of the room."

"You can't see him?" Jerry looked to his wife and kids. "He's right there."

"Dad, why can we see him and no one else can?" Justin asked the question at the top of their heads.

"I don't know." Jerry pushed between his wife and Alex to find and discover the answer. Their invisible but material patron had walked around two customers and had not been noticed, even once reading over a female diner's shoulder at her newspaper. Wiping his pals over the front of his apron, Jerry sidled around beaming at his customers and strided toward his mysterious guest.

"Hi… I'm Jerry Russo…" He looked back briefly to his kids then back to his immaterial patron. "Welcome to my sandwich shop. How can I help you?"

"I guess I scared your kids a bit, but then… they kind of surprised me too." His guest reached to shake hands with Jerry, but their hands passed through each other. "I'm Nick Logan. I worked at the World Trade Towers the day of the collapse. I think I'm a ghost."

"Well, that explains it!" Jerry calmed and reverted to his jovial friendly self. "He's just a ghost!" The customers looked at him not realizing nor seeing the spirit among them. Realizing the odd looks, the embarrassed father stepped away and back to his confused family.

"A ghost?" Theresa reacted with a portion of distress. "Here?"

"Well, why can't mom or anyone else see him?" Alex asked amongst her family grouped at the end of the counter. Nick continued wandering through and around people, chairs and tables in his first haunting attempt.

"Because it's a gift that wizards, even former wizards, have." Jerry explained.

"You mean like psychics?" Justin sat down on a stool.

"Exactly!" Jerry continued. "Wizards resonate on the same level as psychics and mediums, but there's nothing to be afraid of either. There are ghosts all around all the time. They're just people who have died, but have not passed over."

"This is like so cool!" Max was grinning at the idea.

"Oh, Jerry…." Theresa nervously started wiping down the sandwich making area. "I don't like this. I lived with my grandmother for a short time in a former convent that was haunted by a ghostly nun. I've had bad experiences with this stuff." Her Spanish accent cast an enchanting vibe over her words.

"Hey!" Max introduced himself to Nick. "I'm Max! Can you do any tricks?" One of the customers saw Max talking to the empty space.

"I was a CPA, not a magician." He strolled over to the Russo family to meet them, taking the time to reach to a stool and gradually acquire enough substance to sit in it. Even drawing upon the energies from the people in the room, he could stop passing through objects and actually sit down without slipping through to the ground. "I am really glad to meet people who can actually see me. It's really depressing when you don't have anyone who can see you… or talk to you"

"That's so sad…" Alex leaned backward out of sight.

"You know, dad…." Justin looked up with an idea. "I was watching _Ghost Hunters_ last night… Did you know that haunted restaurants and hotels do really good? People love ghosts; he could be great for business."

"He could at that, but we can't ask him to…."

"I'll do it." Nick looked up from looking at the sandwich makings.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, here…" Theresa spoke out at this line of discussion. "Did anyone not hear me? I can stand the magic, transmutations, spells, incantations and conjuring, but I have to draw the line at a ghost."

"But, mom…" The kids all reacted at once. "He's got no one to talk to." Justin spoke up. "He could be like a live-in caretaker or something. Someone to help Max or Alex with their homework when you can't and someone to help watch the shop when we're not here."

"He could help keep Alex out of trouble." Jerry tried to sway the vote.

"Yeah, he could like…" Alex did a double take. "Wait, I don't think I like where this is going."

"Well…" Theresa looked at the empty seat slightly shifting with the ghost in it. "I guess…"

"This is like so cool!" Max was jumping around excited to have a haunted sandwich shop. "I can't wait till Halloween gets here! It's like I got another uncle or something!"

"I'll let him stay a while." Jerry looked toward their guest from the afterlife. "But truthfully, we should be helping Nick pass over." Justin and Max became excited at their new novelty. Learning magic from their father was one thing, but actually having a ghost around to talk to and ask questions was going to be a lot of fun. Alex started fretting. What this ghost was going to be was another ing over her shoulder. Justin ran to get his book on haunted houses and Max started thinking up questions. Theresa sighed and turned to pour the customer at the end of the counter more tea.

"Hey, Jerry," Nick gestured the father aside. "Is that the wife? Looking good!" They tried doing a high-five for the sexy wife.

"I know!!" Jerry laughed at his luck to marry out of his league.

"What did he say? What did he say?" Theresa confronted her husband.

"He says you're nice." Jerry downplayed the comment.


	2. Chapter 2

Theresa scooted her way through the first day peeking around doors and corners for the ghost to make himself known to her. By that evening, she was starting to calm a bit. Alex was getting answers from out of thin air on her homework, Justin was breezing through his chores, her own personal tasks were even getting done unseen and Max had company when Justin and Alex were gone. One night she was walking through the upstairs living room and Max was seemingly playing a board game by himself, but then she noticed the opposing piece moving over the board. It was a little distressing when she'd ask her husband to hand her something or open a tight lid and it would suddenly get done without being touched. Jerry would just say, "Thanks, Nick," and go about his business. Theresa would look around a bit, then go about her business. However, whenever she took a shower, she made sure her husband cleared the bathroom.

"You're mom doesn't seem to like me." Nick and Max sat in a booth under the windows of the shop playing chess.

"I think you make her nervous." Max added. He moved his pawn to another square. "I got another question for you. Why clothes? I mean, you died, but your clothes didn't. What's up with that?"

"You know…" Nick examined the chessboard. "I have no idea. I guess I'll have to bring that up at the next ghost convention."

"Ghost convention?!" Max lit up at that idea. "Oh, you have got to take me along with you on that!"

"Max," Nick looked at him. "I was kidding. There's no such thing as a ghost convention." He paused and studied Max's chess stragedy. "So, what do you got going today?"

"Nothing much…" He waited for Nick to make his next move. "Would you like to come to my softball game this week?"

"Sure…" Nick moved another chess piece. "Want me to show you a few pitches?"

"That would be like so cool!" Max then had a thought. "Wait, wouldn't it look weird if I had a ball being thrown and caught by someone no one else could see."

"Yeah, I guess it would." Nick waited for Max's next move. Max reached to move a pawn then moved to a knight. His mind wandered and he recalled a movie from some week's prior.

"Hey," Max had a thought. "Did you ever see that movie _Ghost Vampires_? It was about vampires who possessed the living in order to drink blood. I bet you could borrow my dad's body for a while. As long as you didn't drink blood anything…"

"I don't know, Max." Nick barely looked up. "But I'm pretty sure your dad is using his body."

"But you could use anyone's body, right?" Max had been asking all sorts of ghost-related questions since they became friends. "I see that in the movies all the time."

"I'm pretty sure a lot of that stuff isn't for real." Nick started to move his last knight then moved his queen to safety.

"But if you could…" Max continued prodding. "Who would you be? Would you want to be rich and famous or rich and retired?"

"I think I'd much prefer to live my life again and not make the mistakes I made the first time around." Nick watched as Max moved his bishop into position.

"What kind of mistakes did you do?"

"The kind of stuff I can't talk about with an eleven-year-old kid."

"Max…" Jerry stepped through the swinging door to the kitchen. "Time for…" He noticed a few customers looking at him. "Your lessons." That was a cue for the boy's wizard training to teach him in the craft and control of his mystical abilities. Max looked to his father then back to his new best friend.

"Come on, Uncle Nick…" Max led Nick through the kitchen to the hidden lair behind the shop where he learned his magic. Nick was following just a step behind, but at the entrance behind the false freezer door, the former CPA crashed into an invisible barrier and fell backward to the kitchen floor. Max spun around and Alex looked up from out of the room.

"Oooo, sorry, Nick…" Jerry appeared in the door. "I forgot to tell you. The lair's kind of enchanted. You can't come in."

"That's okay…" Nick rose up from off the kitchen floor. "I'll just wait for you in the shop." He gestured to Max.

"See you, Uncle Nick." Max called out.

"Hey…" Alex looked across to her eleven-year-old brother. "You two are really becoming buddies."

"Yeah…" Max lit up. "Finally someone to spend time with me!"

"Hey!" Justin peered at him. "I spend time with you."

"Since when?" Max challenged that accusation. Justin tried to think of one.

"Well, you got me there."

"Even so…" Jerry Russo crossed through the room decorated in antique furnishings and littered with a storage house of mystical tomes, sacred artifacts, magical objects and items of both Far Eastern and fantasy orientation. "I wish you wouldn't call him Uncle Nick. It's going to make it that harder to say goodbye to him when the time comes for him to cross over." He picked up his old spell book to begin the lesson in magic. Beyond the door, Nick had wandered back out to the seating area and perused the scene. There were five customers sitting in the sub shop; three of them were singles and two of them were co-workers sitting together. His ethereal lungs sighed a bit as he looked to Teresa pouring one of them more tea then returning to the counter to keep busy. She wiped down the service area and started checking her sandwich-making ingredients.

"You know, Mrs. Russo," Nick sat at the end counter stool. "You've got some great kids there. I mean, Alex is a bit deceptive at times, but she's got a good heart under it. I think she'll turn out to be okay of you have faith in her. You know, just give her a chance… she'll be alright."

"Oh god…" Theresa felt a chill near her and realized Nick was somewhere close to her. "You're near me, aren't you?" She looked round the dining area and few customers. "Look, no disrespect," She looked to the empty stool and around the room. "But you really creep me out." She stopped wiping and re-entered the kitchen. Nick stayed sitting where he was.

"I really hate my afterlife." He groaned out loud. "If I could but live my life again, I would…" He suddenly thought of what Max had said. Why not take over someone else's life? If he wanted, he could finally be that singer or actor he had originally wanted to be in life, but where to find one of them? It was an intriguing prospect, but with his talent, he'd possibly ruin that person's career. He could be a happily married man with a beautiful wife like Jerry, but then Theresa probably knew her husband well enough to tell if he was acting different. He had to think back. Think of a person with the potential to be anyone they wanted to be. His mind drifted to Justin.

"Hi mom…" He surreptitiously and sarcastically greeted Theresa carrying out fresh lettuce and tomatoes for the sandwiches. Jerry and the kids could be in the lair for anywhere for two hours to three hours during the lull in business between lunch and dinner. Their timing was usually pretty good. Around five-thirty and the time people started heading home, they started coming in for a sandwich for dinner or a bag of sandwiches to take home for dinner. The pace at that time could be a bit frenetic and hectic. The odd irate customer was rare; most of the customers were of good nature. Just ten minutes after five, the false freezer door cracked and Jerry finished their lesson angry and upset. He revealed himself drenched to his feet to his wife.

"I'm sorry, dad." Alex was apologizing. "But when you said water, all I could think of was Niagara Falls."

"No problem, princess." Jerry felt a chill race through his body from his wet feet to his wet hair. "But I want you to write down the correct water incantation a hundred times to make sure you remember it." He sneezed loudly. "Great, now I'm getting a cold." He motioned toward the doorway for the route up to his room upstairs above the shop. Behind him, Justin was just a bit wet from the waterfall in the lair, but he was loving getting to watch Alex screw up over and over and over. Smirking out of joy, realizing he was so far ahead of her in his knowledge of wizardry and magic, he smugly stood over her realizing how much better he was doing over her.

"I told you to study." He motioned for the door to the dining area. Nick looked up from the booth across the room and saw the young man almost through the door, but pulled back by Alex. He rose from his seat and hastened over to be by the side of the door for when he came out of it.

"Yeah, well, I told you guys don't play with dolls." Alex gestured to Justin's room above them on the third floor. "I just put dresses on all your action figures!"

"I just got that Collector's Edition set insured!" Justin screamed and raced out of the kitchen and toward the staircase to undo what she had done. Giggling at her little trick, Alex enjoyed putting her brother in his place and pushed through the swinging door into the dining area. She stepped through the door and felt a chill up her spine that nearly knocked her to her feet. She grasped the counter to keep from falling completely and turned round to the kitchen then back to the room again. A confusion of extra thoughts and memories entered her head and her lungs filled with air for a breath. What a wonderful feeling that was! A breath… a heartbeat again… it felt all new to her. She braced a second, pulled her hair back and looked upon the room again with new eyes and a new consciousness.

"That wasn't too bad." She told herself and looked at her hands. "Justin has smaller hands than I thought…" The voice sounded higher too. "Is his voice changing or something?" She reached to her throat then had another thought and passed her hand down over her chest and freaked. This was not was she expected! She looked at her reflection in the mirror on the wall and froze at who was looking back. It was Alex! What happened to Justin?!

"Can't that girl do anything right?!" She screeched out loud and looked back and forth from the reflection to her movements being repeated in the mirror. This was not supposed to happen!

"Alex, stop looking at yourself in the mirror." Theresa came out of the kitchen to place out fresh sandwich fixings for the dinner rush. "You're a really pretty girl, but you're also getting a really full head!"

"If only you knew how full it was."

"Nick!!" Max came running from the lair wearing a baseball cap and carrying a ball and mitt. "My dad said I could go to the park as long as I was back in time for dinner!" He found their chess game just as he had left it. "Nick?" He looked back to his mother. "Mom, have you seen Nick?"

"No, and I hope I never do." She had rung up on the register a drink for a customer. Max looked from his sister and around the room. He said he'd be right here. Alex came around him and took his softball from him.

"Want me to show you that curve ball now, buddy?" She asked him.

"Not now, Alex…" He took his ball back. "I'm looking for…" Something made him look back to Alex. It was something about the way she stood as well as the way she looked at him. It was less of the irritating sister but more of the good friend he expected. Max slowly looked into her eyes. "…Nick?"

"I think I can throw a decent curve even with these arms." She took and tossed the ball up and caught it. Max looked back at his mother. "Wanna go?"

"I think we better hurry!" Max started pushing his sister out of the shop.

"Hey, you two…." Theresa called to them. They paused expecting the worst.

"I want you back in time for dinner." She finished.

"Oh, yeah, right…" Max and Alex chorused together and silently cheered their success in pulling this stunt. Max jumped ahead to race toward the park then looked back to Alex.

"So…" He looked at his sister's body. "What's it feel like in there?"

Alex started answering.

"Don't answer that! I don't want to know!"


	3. Chapter 3

3

"So, what grade did you get on your biology test?" Justin made small talk as he and his sister returned to the shop.

"Oh, I got an A." Alex pushed her back against the door.

"An A?" Justin refused to believe it. He pulled her test out of her book. "An A? Did you actually study for it?"

"I was a bio whiz back in…." Alex caught herself and started thinking. "I mean, no, I, uh, saw a TV-Show about it." She turned extra secretive. Justin looked back at her with a disbelieving look. She had changed a bit in the last few days. She was making all her classes, she had done the dinner dishes last night without being told, even handled a few extra chores by volunteering and even helped Max on his homework. Alex had either turned over a new leaf or was getting ready to ask their parents for a huge favor. In school, she had accidentally walked into the men's room a few times and even become distracted by the cheerleaders a few times. She had either changed her life for the better or had made a massive life change she had not revealed yet. He stepped into the shop past his sister holding the door on him. He expected her to let it slam back on him as usual, but she didn't do that.

"Hey, guys…" Jerry waved his kids in closer. "We've got some time before dinner. Let's hit your wizard training in the lair."

"In the lair?" Alex reacted and looked to Max setting up the chessboard in his regular front booth. They realized the last time a certain someone tried to enter the lair.

"Yes, in the lair." Jerry repeated himself and pressed Max on ahead of him. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing…" Alex gritted her teeth, slowly inched forward and forward with tiny steps expecting to be knocked over at the door. Jerry reacted confused at her behavior, and Justin looked at Max sitting at the sofa. Max's leg was hopping up and down nervously at to fact that Nick might be busted as Alex, but Alex continued inching forward and forward until she was standing on carpet instead of kitchen tiles. She looked back nervously and realized where she was.

"All right, now… I'm okay." She shined a bit relieved.

"Okay for what?" Justin noticed Max acting a bit comforted.

"You have been acting so weird." Jerry looked at his daughter then Max's leg nervously twitching at the idea of getting busted. A brief sip from his bottled water, he turned round to get the book he used to record his kids' wizard grades. Alex sat down beside Max as he leaned over to her.

"How'd you manage that?" He whispered.

"I don't know." Alex whispered back. "I guess your sister has me covered or something."

"What are you guys whispering about?" Justin tried to hear them.

"That stupid aftershave you wear." Max teased his brother in the spirit of sibling rivalry then sat at attention at his father's presence.

"Pop quiz time!" Jerry set aside his water as Justin and Max groaned. Alex looked at them both and groaned out of unison. Her puzzled father started wondering about her. "Uh, I want to test you guys on some of the incantations we've recently covered. Okay, Justin…" Jerry sipped from his water bottle again and thought back to his lessons to the kids. "I want you to animate this plastic frog." He placed a frog-shaped squeeze toy on the table.

"No prob'," Justin gestured over it. "Murietta animata!" He enchanted it and the frog immediately started blinking, peeling its legs and arms apart and stretched out to stand on its hind legs.

"Hello, my baby, hello, my honey, hello, my ragtime gal…." It started singing and dancing like the cartoon icon of the WB Network.

"Okay, okay…." Jerry watched it turn a bottle cap and toothpick into a hat and cane. "I don't think we can allow that. Turn it off." He watched as Justin did the counter-spell to turn the frog back into a squeeze toy. When he did, the frog reverted to its original condition and dropped its improvised hat and cane.

"Max," Jerry walked around the table and looked to his youngest son. "The water spell from your last lesson." He picked up a pail. "Fill this up, and remember, a wand is a tool of precision to direct the flow of magic."

"Right." Max looked to Alex and picked up the wand beside him to tap the pail. "Hydra aquarius." The spell pulled the water and moisture from the area around it and accumulated it in the pail. Jerry's water bottle was drained, part of the fish tank was emptied, and a portion was sapped from the plant beside the sofa and the rest from the moisture in the air.

"I need more water after that." Jerry tossed away his empty water bottle and reached to his unopened packet of bottles by the door, but all the water had been mystically taken from them as well. A look of annoyance to his son, he stepped from the lair, headed out to the cooler in the kitchen and returned with a fresh bottle of water. He closed the door to the lair again, walked around the table in the middle of the room and took the plant off the floor by Max and set it on the table.

"Alex…" He looked to his daughter. "Rejuvenate the plant." He and Justin jumped back realizing her propensity for inaccurate spells.

"Rejuvenate the plant?" Alex responded nervously. Max silently leaned over and whispered the spell in her ear. Jerry caught that whispering, as did Justin. What was going on here?

"Doing it." Alex stood up and gestured over the potted plant. She made a nervous face to Max, cleared her throat nervously and tensed up a bit before incanting. "Terra infirma!" There was a mild flash and the lair was suddenly covered in vines, branches, twigs and leafy foliage. Jerry jumped back at the sight and Justin did a double take. Max felt as if he was in the forest. Alex dropped her jaw as she looked around the sight of branches growing over the walls, leaves growing out of the furniture and shelves and a tree growing up out of the center of the room and reaching up to the ceiling.

"Holy crap!!" Jerry Russo placed his hand to his head in shock. "Alex, why are your powers so jacked up?"

"Uh…." She looked to Max for an answer, but he didn't have one. "I've been… eating my vegetables?"

"Since when do you eat vegetables?" Justin made his own face of fear and bewilderment. "If we find Bigfoot in here, I'm making a run for it."

"Alex…" Jerry looked and stumbled through the roots coming through the floor. He found the book he needed but he had to work it around the tree branch in his way. "Say this void spell to cancel it out."

"Oh…" She looked to the Latin he was pointing out. "Terminus restorum incantatus." There was another flash and the room went back to normal. The plant returned back to the pot a bit healthier than before.

"I can't believe it." Jerry beamed and hugged his daughter. "My baby is finally gaining control over her magic; I knew you'd do it if you just applied yourself! Let's go tell your mother!" He pulled her away from the sofa and guided her out of the lair. Alex looked back to Max for help for just a second as her father proudly guided her out of the secret room. Behind them, Justin became suspicious. He squinted his eyes deep in thought, hiked up one eyebrow and started to wander toward his kid brother to confront him over whatever secret he and Alex had.

"Okay…" He stood close enough to Max to reveal their difference in height. "What's going on? Since when have you and Alex been such close friends?"

"We've always been friends."

"Since when?" Justin crossed his arms suspecting something between them.

"Okay," Max started to tell the truth then decided he didn't want to share a kinder, friendlier and fun-to-be-with sister. "I'm blackmailing her. Yeah, I caught her sneaking in a week ago and she's been under my power ever since."

"I don't believe you."

"I didn't think you would." Max rolled his eyes. "Why not?"

"Because the last time we tried to blackmail Alex she shrunk us down to action figures and locked us in her underwear drawer for two hours." Justin revealed. "She's not just been nice to you, but she's getting good grades, doing her chores and not obsessed with shopping or herself." He paused, reflected on other mitigating circumstances and formulated a theory. "I haven't seen Nick in days either, it's almost as if…" He realized the truth. "Wait, is Nick inside Alex?"

"Inside Alex?" Max scoffed at the idea. "Gross! That's the last place I'd think he'd want to be! I mean, just the thought of it creeps me out! In fact, I'm so grossed out, I think I'm going to vomit!" He rolled his eyes and quickly weaved his way out of the lair and into the way toward the Russo family apartment upstairs.


	4. Chapter 4

4

"Jerry," Theresa chopped lettuce at the sandwich counter. "Don't you think Alex has been acting odd?"

"She's been behaving herself." Jerry popped a cherry tomato into his mouth. "And I believe we have Nick to thank for that." Max came into the restaurant from the backstairs to the apartment and overhead that.

"Why would you say that?" He looked to his parents.

"I think we can thank Nick for keeping an eye on Alex and keeping her out of mischief." Jerry reiterated his point. "Thanks to him, she's staying out of trouble, she's been studying, her grades are up, she hasn't fought with Justin once, she's keeping up with her chores and she's even spending more time with you Max. I've never seen you two so close."

"Yeah…" Max turned a bit guilty. "You could say she's even closer to Nick."

"About that…" Jerry came around his wife and joined Max on the outside of the counter. "You know, I haven't seen Nick in quite a while. Where's he been?"

"Where's he been?" Max repeated the question and began improvising to keep Nick out of trouble. "Uh, you know that old theater on the next block we always thought was haunted… Well, he made friends there. Yeah, they've been playing poker a lot." He nodded his head with that answer. "Deuces wild and all that. Those Civil War soldiers are really great guys!"

"Max…" Theresa did her motherly voice. "Nick hasn't been taking you to these games, has he?"

"I can honestly say I have not been going to Nick's poker games!" Max discovered the magic in a half-truth. If there were no such games, he could not attend them. His ears detected voices behind him and he turned round to see Alex and her friend, Harper, coming in late from school. Chances are they had been shopping, but they were devoid of packages.

"You used to love shopping so much." Harper was dressed in blue overalls with an even bluer long-sleeved shirt with her hair in pigtails. "And those boys actually liked us. What's happened to you these days? Don't you like boys anymore?"

"Whatever…" Alex rolled her eyes and marched forward and put her schoolbooks on a table. "I just don't like going to the mall."

"Since when?" Harper turned and looked back to her best friend. "Alex, what's wrong with you? You can tell me anything!"

"Nothing, Hallie, it's just…"

"Harper! For the last time, my name is Harper!" Alex's best friend snapped. "Harper Evans! Harper Evans!! Why can't you recall that?!"

"Would you believe…" She looked back at her with different mannerisms. "That I haven't been myself lately."

"That's an understatement!" Max tried to be funny as he came between them. "Hey, Alex, _Zombie Raiders_ is playing over at the Bijou; you wanna go see it after dinner?" Behind him, Justin had entered the room to ask his father a second, but he instead became distracted by the little play going on before him.

"That's sounds so cool!" Alex acted more like a young boy than a young lady. "And Lindsay Lohan looks so hot in it too!"

"I feel like I'm in _The Twilight Zone!!_" Harper shrieked out loud in the middle of the shop. Her eyes were in shock; her mind trapped in disbelief. "You'd rather hang out with your stupid brother than me?!"

"Hal… I mean, Harper…" Alex looked back to her best friend. "Look, Max is my little brother. We like hanging each out."

"Since when?!"

"Yeah…" Justin spoke up. "Since when?" Alex rolled her eyes at him then toward Max and back to Harper as her parents watched.

"Look…" Alex pulled back a strand of her hair. "Harper, we'll do something tomorrow. Okay?"

"Do you mean it?" Harper finally became excited. "You mean like shopping, facials and manicures?"

"O - kay…." Alex responded with a less than excited response.

"I can't wait!" Harper started jumping up and down excited.

"Neither can I." Alex stopped her jumping. "Give me a hug."

"Oh, Alex. I love you too." Harper hugged Alex, but found something weird about her friendly hug. "Alex, could you let me go?" Something felt very weird about this hug. "Alex?" She began tapping Alex's shoulder a bit harder as the two friends parted and pulled apart. Harper starred at Alex for another moment acting embarrassed.

"You have been acting so weird."

"Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot." Alex mumbled to herself. Harper beamed cartoonishly and recollected her books. She turned on her heel to depart and looked back happily ecstatic, waving a bit overjoyed back to Alex. Alex pretended to wave back at her, a bit less effervescent than heard and slightly annoyed. With her gone, she rolled her eyes, grabbed up her books and turned to Max.

"Let me change clothes, okay?" She told him.

"Perfect!" Max pepped up to be going to the movies. Steering round Justin watching her, Alex headed past her mother standing by the door to the kitchen.

"Alex, honey, " Theresa looked at her daughter. "Where's your purse?"

"I stopped carrying that stupid thing around." Alex backed through the door with Max shortly behind her. Justin stood by mulling on things and reflecting before following behind.

"Okay," Theresa looked to her husband. "I never thought I'd say this, but… I miss the old lazy and irresponsible Alex."

"I don't." Jerry continued chopping tomatoes. "Let's give a big hand to Nick for shaping her up. A hand for Nick, wherever he is." He started clapping his hands. Behind him, Justin had passed through the kitchen and up to the apartment upstairs. Max was sitting on the sofa waiting on his sister to take him to the movies.

"Okay, Max…" Justin leaned over the back of the sofa. "What's going on between you and Alex? Why is she being so nice to you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Max looked at his brother and slowly slid away, but Justin grabbed him by the t-shirt and pushed him down into the sofa with his knee to the pit of his brother's chest.

"Come on, tell me, booger brain!"

"I won't tell you! I won't tell you!" Max screamed with his brother on his chest.

"I'm going to spit in your mouth!" Justin hawked up a massive wad of phlegm from his throat.

"Justin," Jerry had heard the fracas from downstairs and came up behind his boys in good humor to bust up their chicanery. "Get off your brother!"

"I'll tell! I'll tell!" Max couldn't take keeping the secret another day much less having his brother spitting into his mouth. "It's Nick! He's been pretending to be Alex so we can play ball!" Jerry heard that and realized what he had said. Theresa had dropped her salad she had made for dinner and looked toward her daughter coming down the spiral metal staircase from the upstairs bedrooms. The moment became awkward. Everyone became silent. The only sound for a minute was the activity from the street outside the second-floor landing. Jerry felt a wave of anguish for not realizing the truth earlier. How could he not realize it? He felt as if he was a bad father for not spotting this masquerade, but his disgrace turned to anger. Theresa stared with shock at the revelation she had discovered.

"Nick?" Jerry Russo looked at Alex with mixed feelings of anger, shock and confusion.

"Justin's been gluing fake hair to his chest!" She pointed to her brother. Justin reacted embarrassed and looked around trying to fold his arms inconspicuously.

"You're in my daughter's body?" Jerry looked at Alex and realized it all made perfect sense. The perfect grades, the good behavior, actually doing chores, her hyped-up magic… it all made sense to him now! "Do you know how creepy that is?!"

"Yes!!" Alex nodded her head in agreement. "I was trying to be Justin!" She gestured to her brother.

"Okay," Justin did a double take. "I did not need to know that!"

"Dad, please!" Max came running up to defend his sister. "This has been the best week of my life since ever! Nick and I have been doing a lot more with Alex around than we did when he was just a ghost. It's not like we did anything wrong."

"Wrong? Anything wrong?" Jerry was pacing back and forth and things started making sense. "He's been pretending to be Alex! That's not fair to Alex or to your mother or I! Max, if you and Nick wanted a way to spent time with each other you should have asked me! I could have found a spell or talisman to make it possible!"

"Really?" Alex lit up. "Just what sort of spell?" Jerry shot a look at her for that presumption.

"That's it!" Theresa was shaking her head too angry to think and finally found her voice to speak. "I want you out of my daughter's body and out of here! Go haunt somewhere else! I mean it!"

"Mom, " Max was upset. "But she… he's my friend. Don't send him away!"

"I'm sorry, Max." Jerry folded his arms upset. "But Nick went over a line here. He's got to go!"

"Your dad's right, Max." Alex responded dejectedly and turned to her brother. "We should have come clean from the start, but…" She rolled her eyes embarrassedly. "It felt so good to be alive again. To eat and drink and talk to people and actually be around others, you were like the son I always wanted but never had… You were all the family I never had. Max…" She looked at his depressed face and put her hand on his shoulder. "Your sister may be a pain, but she deserves to have her life back too." She took a deep breath and seemed to be going into a trance. Closing her eyes, she swayed forward and back on her feet and opened her eyes. She was still standing in the same place. Her body swayed left and right as she held her left hand up and looked at it.

"Uh-oh…"

"Uh-oh?" Theresa was livid. "There's no uh-oh here. I want my baby back!"

"I was afraid of that." Jerry unfolded his arms and motioned to the lair. "I think he's been Alex over the time limit. I'll need a spell to pull them apart. Justin, watch your sister, you'll have a long incantation to do this."

"Right, dad."

"I'll go with you." Theresa followed Jerry to the lair off the kitchen. "I can't even look at Alex knowing what I do." She looked to her oldest son. "Justin, watch your sister." She turned and marched away in anger.

"Watch your sister…" Justin repeated and watched his parents heading off in anger. He turned round to see Max and Alex sitting on the sofa. "I definitely haven't heard that in a while." He sat down at the end of the sofa with a space between him and his sister. "So… You've been Alex all this time." He sat next to her and Max on the sofa. "I should have known. You were too nice these last few days… and smart! Way too smart, I should have known." He sat a bit smug at busting their covert game and looked back to his sister's body next to him. "So, what's it like in there?"

Alex started answering.

"Don't answer that! I don't want to know!"


	5. Chapter 5

5

"It took me a while, but I found it!" Jerry hastened back up the apartment from the lair with his wife. "It's right here in Tobin's Spirit Guide. Ironically, it's not under exorcism or possession but under astral projection. You see, back in the Fourteenth Century…" Theresa swatted him to keep from drifting off subject. "What? Oh yeah…" He turned to his son. "Okay, Justin, here's the spell… wait, where's Nick…" He noticed they were a kid short.

"He had to go to the bathroom." Justin replied. There was a sound of a toilet flushing and a person coming out of the downstairs bathroom under the stairs. Justin and his parents looked up expecting to see Alex coming out from the guest bathroom.

"Whoa… do not go in there!!" Max came out instead and waved the door in a vain attempt to erase the smell he left behind in it.

"Where's Nick?" Jerry asked the question.

"He said there was one last thing he had to do before he was exorcised. He promised he'd be right back." Max answered.

"He's not coming back." Justin worriedly turned pessimistic. Theresa dropped her jaw in shock realizing somewhere on Manhattan was a person who looked like her daughter.

"He said he'd come back." Max repeated himself. "He promised."

"Where'd he go?" Jerry asked.

A subway ride later up to the Upper East Side later, Alex found herself standing before the Whittendale Towers looking up over its thirty story from street level. It was a posh apartment building for wealthy residents ranging from lawyers, business owners and captains-of-industry. The lobby was a symbol of the prestige of its tenants with simple features, a grand hotel level front level with a flurry of people coming and going from every directions and regal blue elevators constantly transporting guests and residents. To get past the doorman, Alex mixed in nonchalantly with a group of teenage girls about her age, separating from them on the twenty-second floor and proceeding past a seating area of benches and potted plants surrounded by tame orange wallpaper to a certain apartment. She had not been here before, but the memories in her head were guiding down toward an apartment in particular, Apartment 228 not far from the elevator which looked over Fifth Avenue. She looked at the silver letters on the dark blue door a second, gasped a moment hesitant of what she was doing and then affirmed her presence and conscience by rapping the brass knocker once then twice. She heard movement inside then stepped back.

"Yes?" A blonde beauty in a large white sweater answered the door, her garment hiding her figure and hanging over her Capri pants. Her hair was long and perfect, her eyebrows hidden by her locks of hair, but her rich blue eyes emanating with the regal presence of the gods. Her voice was perfect, like a whisper made of honey.

"Mrs. Chapel?" She spoke up to her. "I'm Alex Russo… Nick's niece." The woman looked at her a second in disbelief.

"Nick didn't have any brothers or sisters." Katie Chapel answered. "He was raised by his grandmother." She remembered.

"That's right…" Alex spoke up. "But my dad and his cousins visited a lot down from Collinsport, Maine…" She got Katie's attention. "I think you met my dad once during Nick's twenty-fourth birthday party." She recalled events from Nick's past that Katie would know.

"That guy with the fruit bowl on his head got married?" Katie remembered. She scoffed a bit then unerringly accepted the fabrication had to be the truth. "Would you like to come in?"

"Please…" Alex entered the apartment and looked round already knowing what it looked like. The patio balcony over Fifth Street was to the right on the other side of the hallway, the kitchen was set at the far end beyond the dining area and the writing desk by her left side were just like the memories now with her. Upon seeing the crooked ornament on the wall, she reached up and straightened it.

"You're Nick's niece all right." Katie motioned Alex over to her sofa. "He straightened that every time he entered too."

"Well, neatness runs through the family." Alex answered.

"I was very much in love with Nick up until his death." Katie sighed upon her lost past with the man she should have married. She sat back and pulled up her legs upon the sofa in the center of the apartment with her paperwork scattered over her coffee table. "I still think of him a lot." She paused in deep reflection. "What can I do for you, Alex?"

"Well," The girl was improvising quickly to conceive the feelings Nick had for this woman. "My dad has been going over my… uh… Uncle Nick's belongings and found a picture of you two from Atlantic City. Your address was on the back. I wanted to meet you and see what you remembered about him."

"Atlantic City." Katie flashed back on the trip. "We took that trip after a fight we had. I wanted him to pop the question and he was holding off until he felt he was worthy. He never felt good enough for me, but I'd have accepted him anyway." She paused. "Alex, never hope for a prince charming; the best guys are right under your nose." She turned round for her drink on the table. "You know…" Katie sipped her chocolate milk. "The day after I lost Nick, I thought I felt his presence near me, trying to reach me…"

"He was trying to reach you." Alex responded. "He loved you so much. When he died, all he thought of was you. He regretted the fact that he never got to tell you how he felt."

"I knew…" Katie picked up his picture behind her on the end table. "I just wish… He told me a bit more often."

"He may not have told you…" Speaking in second person was a much easier way to reveal the truth. "But he tried hard to be the sort of person he knew you deserved. He wanted to be successful so he could marry you."

"He didn't need to be successful." Katie felt her old feelings coming back. "I'd have taken him poor or…. I miss him so much, Alex." She reached over and hugged her. Alex felt her heart breaking. She wanted to say the truth, but she couldn't. She hugged Katie back.

"You hug like Nick too."

"You could say there's a lot of him in me." Alex mumbled the truth.

"Would you like a drink?"

"I can't stay long…" Alex took a deep breath. "I promised my dad I'd be back soon. I just…." Her heart as well as her voice was breaking under the strain of emotion. "I just felt you needed some closure…."

"Thank you, Alex." Katie hugged her again and followed her to the door. "Come by anytime. I'd like to hear more from you about Nick." She stopped at the doorway to the hall.

"I'll try." Alex forced a grin as a small tear fell from her left eye. Her heart was going out to her wanting to be held by her again. She turned away as Katie closed her apartment door, but as she reached the elevator, her hand rose up to her head. She was feeling a bit dizzy. It was as if something was being pulled from her. She took a deep breath, exhaled deeply and looked up the hall and back.

"Where am I?" She asked herself. "How did I get here?"

"You did me a favor, Alex." A voice replied to her. Alex looked over and saw Nick leaning against the far wall. He was dressed all in white this time and bathed in light. "With your help, I was able to say goodbye to my girlfriend. That's all I ever wanted." He looked back to Katie's door. "I loved her so much." He paused reflectively and looked back to Alex. "Look, I want you to tell Max to bear up on the bat and stop being afraid of the ball." He continued. "Tell him I'll be looking over him, and that he's the best little buddy anyone could ever have. You and Justin have a great brother there."

"I'll remember that." Alex did not think for a second how he had violated her body. She looked toward the end of the hall and the bright light shining toward them. She held her hand up trying to look beyond it, but lining the walls of the hall were more shades of other spirits. They were the spirits of the other Tower victims. Firemen still in their gear and helmets, an airline pilot, a stewardess or two, a businessman, a woman with her jacket over her shoulder, several police officers and many more collecting and welcoming Nick into the light. They crowded the corridor bathed in astral light and eternal prosperity and engulfed the shadow of Nick Logan in acceptance ready to guide him across into eternity. Nick made one last look back toward Alex with a slight smile just before the light swelled in even more brilliance. Behind it, the teen sorceress could see the realm beyond, and it was beautiful. It was like a perfect city merged with aspects of Ancient Rome and the best qualities of New York City with eternal forests and grand monuments untainted by pollution, hate or prejudice. It was perfect. Her eyes reflected in humble awe in its grandeur a second more and it closed away once more, leaving her behind on the mortal plane. After such an experience, she gasped and took in a deep breath.

"Have a happy afterlife, Nick." She wished him.


	6. Chapter 6

6

It was past dusk by time Alex found her way home from the Upper East Side back to Waverly Place. The sky was dark, but the city remained alive by the lights of car headlights, storefronts and neon billboards high above. Once again reminded that New York City was the greatest place in the world to live, she sighed tiredly from her subway ride back to Greenwich Village and the two blocks she walked home into Waverly Place. When she pushed tiredly through the front entrance of her family restaurant, she beamed toward the face of her father sweeping the customer area. Before she could say a word, he barked at her.

"Get in here, mister!"

"Mister?" Alex reacted from that word. Her father grabbed her by the arm and dragged her past the counter, through the kitchen and up to the loft. Theresa spun round to see her daughter again, and Justin snapped to attention ready to incant the separation spell. Depressed and upset, Max mulled around in the back of the room depressed.

"Okay, Justin, just as we rehearsed it." Jerry pointed to his eldest son.

"Whoa, dad… it's me, it's me. I'm back." Alex finally spoke up. "I'm okay now!!"

"Really, prove it!" Her father remained suspicious.

"How about a few breath mints first why don't you." She waved the air before her face with her hand. "I swear, your breath is worse than Justin's laundry." There was a brief lull before anyone reacted.

"My baby's back!" Theresa recognized that snotty attitude and pushed forward, wrapping her arms around her daughter in a warm loving embrace. Jerry and Justin reacted confused. Alex was grinning in her mother's arms and everything was right with the world. Max groaned in pain, resting his head against the glass doors to the outside patio.

"I don't get to do the spell now?" Justin snapped his father's magic book shut. "Okay," He started thumbing through it. "There's got to be something here about obnoxious sisters." His father heard him and snatched the book back.

"What happened?" Jerry palmed the book under his arm as he looked to his daughter. "What happened to Nick?"

"He crossed over." Alex motioned to the kitchen nook for her dinner, pulling out cold pizza from the top shelf of the refrigerator to heat up for her dinner. "I talked to his girlfriend for him, told her he loved her, she confessed to missing him and next thing I knew I was heading home without him." She dumped the empty box. "By the way, she thinks dad is Nick's crazy, beer-swilling, skirt-chasing, New England redneck cousin. Don't ask me how I know that." She turned to program the microwave.

"I can't believe Nick left without saying goodbye." Max groaned depressingly looking out the window.

"You know, Max…" Alex hated these family moments. She looked over to him. "The whole time you and Nick were throwing the ball around and going to the arcade and the movies and eating hamburgers, pizza and hot dogs and screwing up my figure, I was there too." She looked up to her mother. "Against my will, but I have to admit, I had fun too." She looked back to Max.

"So you'll take me to go see _Amazon Women From Planet X_?" Max lit up.

"Not going to happen." Alex stood up with her personality back to full force. "I need to get some exercise to burn off all that junk food plus I need to catch up on my shopping. Daddy, could I borrow your credit card tomorrow?" She turned to her parents.

"Nick, come back!!" Jerry looked to the heavens beyond his home and reached forward for help. "I apologize! I'll adopt you! I'll be the dad you never had!" His wife swatted him back thinking he was serious.

"What are you doing?" She asked him.

"You know," Jerry realized something. "If we had another kid, there'd be a one in a million chance it would be Nick in his next life." She looked back at him out of shocked disbelief and walked away from him.

"Theresa, I'm kidding." He tried to apologize. "I don't want another kid. Heck, sometimes I don't want the three we got…" He followed her down to the restaurant to do the closing.

"So, Alex…" Justin turned around to his sister. "What did it feel like? You know, being…" He looked for the right word.

"Possessed?" She reacted annoyingly hostile, pulling her pizza out from the microwave after the ding. "Well, to tell the truth, for much of the time I wasn't sure when I was myself and when I was Nick." She pulled out a bottle of water and motioned to sit at the counter. "Like I said, several times I felt it really was me with Max. I guess we sort of merged and balanced each other." She bit into her first piece. "I'm really going to miss acing math and science. It was finally making sense." She stopped again and looked over herself. "No wonder I'm so comfortable…" She pulled out her sweater and looked inside her clothing. "I'm not wearing a bra." She locked to the ceiling again and shook her fist. "Thanks again, Nick!"

"You know, in some way…" Down in the shop, Jerry turned to his wife to help her turn up the chairs in the dining area. "I understand why Nick did it. Knowing you died too soon and then finding yourself in a depressing lonely existence surrounded by people who can't see you. I can understand his wanting to be alive again and starting over, even being so desperate to take a body of the opposite sex if but to be alive again."

"Would you do it?"

"Heck no!!" Jerry felt secure in his masculinity. There was a rapping at the front of the shop. He turned round to look out the glass doors first. One of the guys outside looked like a Hollywood stuntman, tall in frame with a baldhead and dark mustache and goatee. The other had typical good-looking leading man looks. They both wore heavy dark jackets and mulled a bit as Jerry unlocked the doors.

"Yes?" Jerry looked at them.

"Hi, We're here from TAPS." The big guy posed a bit in the door. "Your son, Max, wrote us and said you had a ghost?"

"Max!!"

End


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